Aerosmith members to join Pops on July 4

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry will headline this year's nationally televised Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade on July Fourth.

Yesterday's announcement, made by David Mugar, the show's executive producer, and con-firmed by CBS, came a day after Mugar complained to the Globe that CBS had yet to sign a headliner for the high-profile show. Mugar said he was relieved yesterday, and that he didn't regret voicing his frustration with the network.

``If talent had been secured two months ago, which is very reasonable, we would have been listed in TV Guide, we would have had a shot at the Sunday television magazines, we could have had all sorts of advance publicity," said Mugar. ``We have unfortunately missed a great opportunity to attract a much larger audience."

CBS, which has booked the talent for the program since 2003, has typically announced a headliner within two weeks of the concert at the Hatch Shell.

``We're baffled by his remarks and decline further comment," said CBS spokesman Phil Gonzales .

This isn't the first time Aerosmith's leaders, singer Tyler and guitarist Perry, have been wooed by the Esplanade concert organizers. In 2004, an attempt to sign up Aerosmith fizzled when the band couldn't work out a way to play Boston between the end of its North American tour and the start of its dates in Japan.

``It just didn't come together, but Steve Tyler and I were talking, and we want to make it happen at some point," Pops conductor Keith Lockhart said at the time.

That year, former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth performed with the Pops. Last year, the Pops went with a country theme, booking irreverent duo Big & Rich and Grammy winner Gretchen Wilson.

In a statement yesterday, Lockhart said : ``I've been saying for a long time that Boston's two favorite bands really needed to join forces for this event, and I'm so happy we finally get to do it this year."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.